Hydrogen cyanide history

Officially, the history of MCRs dates back to the year 1850, with the introduction of the Strecker reaction (S-3CR) describing the formation of a-aminocyanides from ammonia, carbonyl compounds, and hydrogen cyanide [4]. In 1882, the reaction progressed to the Hantzsch synthesis (H-4CR) of 1,4-dihydropyridines by the reaction of amines, aldehydes, and 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds [5], Some 25 years later, in 1917, Robinson achieved the total synthesis of the alkaloid tropinone by using a three-component strategy based on Mannich-type reactions (M-3CR) [6]. In fact, this was the earliest application of MCRs in natural product synthesis [7]. 

Although the hydrogenation of hydrogen cyanide to methylamine was achieved as early as 1863 (Debus, 1), the history of modern catalytic hydrogenation began in 1897 with the discovery by Paul Sabatier and R. Senderens of the vapor phase hydrogenation of unsaturated compounds over a nickel catalyst (Sabatier and Senderens, 2). Sabatier has said that his interest in the action of nickel was provoked by the newly discovered Mond process for the purification of nickel by the formation and decomposition of nickel carbonyl. The capacity of nickel... 

The history of amino acids begins four billion years ago. The Earths atmosphere then consisted of water vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane and ammonia. It was hot, and for millions of years lightning flashes discharged across the sky (Fig. 4.1). Under these conditions initially aldehydes and hydrogen cyanide originated, and therefrom amino adds were produced (by Strecker reaction). 

Despite the chemical complexity of multicomponent reactions (MCRs), the dawn of MCRs was fairly early in the history of organic chemistry. The first MCR was the so-called Strecker reaction discovered in 1850 [1, 2], which generates amino acids via a three-component reactiOTi between amines, aldehydes (or ketones), and hydrogen cyanide (Scheme 1). Since then, organic chemists have devoted much effort to the discovery of additional MCRs. Thus, we now can find a number of MCRs, including the Biginelli reaction [3], the Gewald reaction [4], the van Leusen three-component reaction [5], the Hantzsch reaction [6], the Mannich reaction [7], the Kabachnik-Fields reaction [8, 9], the Passerini reaction [10], the Ugi reaction [11, 12] and numerous variations thereof [13]. 

History. William Hyde Wollaston discovered rhodium in 1804 in crude platinum ore from South America soon after his discovery of another element, palladium. He dissolved the ore in aqua regia, neutralized the acid with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and precipitated the platinum by treatment with salmiac (i.e., ammonium chloride, NH Cl) as ammonium hexa-chloroplatinate (NH PtClJ. Palladium was then removed as palladium cyanide by treatment with mercuric cyanide. The remaining material was a red material containing rhodium chloride salts from which rhodium metal was obtained by reduction with hydrogen gas. 

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